The District’s Democratic mayoral candidates are promoting plans to create more affordable housing, critical of gentrification projects that have sparked new construction throughout the city but also pushed some residents from their longtime neighborhoods.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is seeking a third term, faces primary challenges from former attorney James Butler and D.C. Council members Trayon White (Ward 8) and Robert White (at-large), who are not related. The Democratic primary is set for June 21.
A key issue of their campaigns is the city’s economic and population growth, which have highlighted a need for affordable housing.
Ms. Bowser has cited her Housing Production Trust Fund, which has collected about $1 billion since she took office in 201, as a resource for thousands of affordable and subsidized housing units and has highlighted her goal of adding 12,000 affordable homes by 2025.
“We need people who sincerely believe — like I do, like my team at D.C. government does — that we can change the trajectory of housing in D.C.,” Ms. Bowser said in a press release.
However, an inspector general reported last year that D.C. officials had misspent almost $82 million of funds intended for affordable housing.
Mr. White, who represents one of the District’s most impoverished wards, has lambasted the mayor’s fund as a “slush fund” that has benefited developers at the expense of minority residents.
“We are being forced out, and gentrification is being engineered by the government,” Mr. White said at a recent forum attended by all four candidates.
He has long been a proponent of expanding affordable housing and tenants’ rights during his time on the council. He also unsuccessfully advocated for the creation of the Office of Housing Stability, an agency that would seek to prevent housing displacement of city residents.
Similarly, Robert White has argued that pouring more money into a problem isn’t a solution that’s going to fix the root cause of the shortage.
The at-large council member wants to turn vacant downtown office buildings into affordable housing units, while also partnering with developers to build more units suited for families.
Mr. Butler, meanwhile, wants to expand rent control to newer apartment buildings, and require every building that’s developed by the government to include a space for a minority-owned business.
Mr. Butler also said the District has a problem with gentrification that outweighs other major U.S. cities.
“It’s a huge problem,” he told The Washington Times. “DC has displaced more Black and brown families since it began experimenting with gentrification.”
Because the District is a heavily Democratic city, the winner of the primary typically becomes mayor after the November general election. Registered D.C. Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 9-to-1.
• Mica Soellner can be reached at msoellner@washingtontimes.com.
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